A variety of computer-based systems for facilitating communications among users have been developed. For example, electronic mail (email) systems allow users to send messages to one or more specified recipients. The specified recipients of a message may retrieve and read the message at any time, and may respond to the message or forward it to other users. Email systems typically provide the ability to create mailing lists to facilitate communication among groups of users having common roles or interests. News services (also referred to as xe2x80x9cclipping servicesxe2x80x9d) deliver to users selected news articles covering topics of interest to the users. Such news services typically select which news articles to deliver to users by comparing words in the news articles to keywords provided by the users. Electronic bulletin board systems allow groups of users to create electronic bulletin boards, also referred to as xe2x80x9cnewsgroups,xe2x80x9d that typically correspond to a particular topic. Any user who subscribes to a newsgroup may post messages to the newsgroup and read messages posted to the newsgroup by other subscribed users. Electronic xe2x80x9cchat roomsxe2x80x9d enable users to communicate with each other in real-time by entering messages that are immediately communicated to and viewable by other users in the same chat room. The public Internet is increasingly being used as a medium for these and other forms of electronic communication.
One problem associated with such communication systems is that of xe2x80x9cinformation overload.xe2x80x9d Users of such systems often find themselves presented with such a large volume of information (e.g., email messages or newsgroup postings) that they find it difficult or impossible to manually examine all of the information in order to identify the information that is relevant to them. As a result, users may fail to receive or read information that is relevant to them and to engage in potentially fruitful communications. Similarly, users who transmit information using such communications systems may fail to reach desirable recipients because such recipients are unable to separate relevant from irrelevant messages.
A variety of automated and semi-automated systems have been developed in an attempt to help users organize and filter information received using electronic communications systems. For example, some systems attempt to deliver messages only to users to whom the messages are relevant. Such systems typically allow each user to define a set of preferences that indicate the user""s interests. Such preferences may, for example, include keywords that describe the user""s interests. Typically, such systems store incoming messages in a database as they are received by the system. When a certain number of messages have been received, the system performs a query on the database using each user""s preferences. Each query typically produces scores for the messages in the database indicating how relevant the messages are to users of the system. The system uses these scores to determine which messages stored in the database are sufficiently relevant to forward to the corresponding user.
One problem with such conventional systems is that they require that multiple messages be received by the system before the relevancies of the messages can be determined. This requirement delays the delivery of incoming messages to users of the system. Such systems may therefore not be appropriate for environments in which communications need to be delivered quickly, such as enterprise email systems.
A further problem with such conventional systems is that users of such systems have limited control over the number and frequency of messages they receive from the system. Defining user preferences using keywords primarily serves to define the subject matter in which the user is interested, but does not place any bounds on the number or frequency of messages that the system will deliver to the user. As a result, users of such systems may experience xe2x80x9cdownxe2x80x9d times during which they are ready and willing to receive, read, and respond to messages but during which they receive few messages or none at all. Similarly, users of such systems may be overloaded by a flood of messages that match the users"" preferences. Such systems, therefore, fail to address a primary aspect of the problem of information overload.
Similar problems arise in systems that allow users to define a fixed relevancy threshold for incoming messages. Such systems compare the computed relevancy score of each incoming message to the fixed relevancy threshold defined by each user to determine whether to forward the incoming message to each user. When the system receives a large number of messages that exceed a user""s relevancy threshold, the user will be overwhelmed with incoming messages. Similarly, when the system receives few messages that exceed a user""s relevancy threshold, the user will receive few messages, even if the user is willing and available to read additional messages. Use of fixed thresholds, therefore, does not allow the frequency with which messages are delivered to users to change in response to the frequency and relevancy of incoming messages or to the preferences or activity levels of users.
Some systems allow users to set a fixed limit on the number of incoming messages to be delivered to them periodically (e.g., each day). The problems associated with such systems are similar to those described above. For example, if a large number of highly-relevant messages are received by the system in one day, the user will fail to receive relevant messages. Similarly, if the system receives many low-relevancy messages in one day, the user will receive few messages during the day, even if the user is willing and available to read more messages. Such systems, therefore, fail to respond to users"" changing preferences and activity levels of users.
A method for regulating a flow of information to a user is provided. The method is performed in a system that includes a relevancy threshold for the user and an incoming message having a relevancy score, the relevancy score indicating a relevancy of the incoming message to the user. The method includes steps of determining whether the relevancy score of the incoming message satisfies the relevancy threshold and delivering to the user message information derived from the incoming message and adjusting the relevancy threshold when the relevancy score of the incoming message satisfies the relevancy threshold. The method may further include a step of adjusting the relevancy threshold by an amount determined by a time-dependent function when the relevancy score of the incoming message does not satisfy the relevancy threshold. The step of delivering may include a step of adjusting the relevancy threshold by a function of the difference between the relevancy threshold and a maximum relevancy value. The step of delivering may include a step of adjusting the relevancy threshold by a function of the difference between the relevancy threshold and an amount determined by a time-dependent function of the relevancy threshold.
Another method for regulating a flow of information to a user is provided. The method is performed in a system including a relevancy threshold for the user and an incoming message having a relevancy score, the relevancy score indicating a relevancy of the incoming message to the user. The method includes steps of calculating the relevancy threshold as a function of time, determining whether the relevancy score of the incoming message satisfies the relevancy threshold, and delivering the incoming message to the user when the relevancy score of the incoming message satisfies the relevancy threshold. The step of calculating may include calculating the relevancy threshold as a function of time that is specified by the user. The step of calculating the relevancy threshold as a function of time that is specified by the user may include steps of receiving user volume input from the user, the user volume input indicating a desired frequency of message delivery to the user, and calculating the function of time based on the user volume input.
Another method for regulating a flow of information to a user is provided. The method is performed in a system including a relevancy threshold for the user and a plurality of incoming messages having relevancy scores, the relevancy scores indicating relevancies of the plurality of incoming messages to the user. The method includes a step of delivering to the user message information derived from at least some of the incoming messages having relevancy scores satisfying the relevancy threshold at a rate specified by the user. The step of delivering may include steps of calculating the relevancy threshold as a function of time, determining whether the relevancy scores of the incoming messages satisfy the relevancy threshold, delivering to the user message information derived from those incoming messages whose relevancy scores satisfy the relevancy threshold, adjusting the relevancy threshold when it is determined that at least one of the relevancy scores satisfies the relevancy threshold. The step of calculating the relevancy threshold as a function of time may include a step of calculating the relevancy threshold as a function of time that is specified by the user. The step of calculating the relevancy threshold as a function of time that is specified by the user may include steps of receiving user volume input from the user, the user volume input indicating a desired frequency of message delivery to the user, and calculating the function of time based on the user volume input. The step of adjusting the relevancy threshold may include a step of adjusting the relevancy threshold by a function of the difference between the relevancy threshold and a maximum relevancy value. The step of adjusting the relevancy threshold may include a step of adjusting the relevancy threshold by an amount specified by the user.
A system, computer-readable medium, and apparatus for regulating a flow of information to a user are also provided. For example, a system is provided that includes a user profiles database including a relevancy threshold for the user, a relevancy engine to generate a relevancy score for an incoming message, the relevancy score indicating a relevancy of the incoming message to the user, and a salience engine to deliver to the user message information derived from the incoming message and to adjust the relevancy threshold when the relevancy score of the incoming message satisfies the relevancy threshold. Another system for regulating a flow of information to a user is provided, the system including a user profiles database including a relevancy threshold for the user, a relevancy engine to generate a relevancy score for an incoming message, the relevancy score indicating a relevancy of the incoming message to the user, and a salience engine to calculate the relevancy threshold as a function of time and to deliver to the user message information derived from the incoming message when the relevancy score of the incoming message satisfies the relevancy threshold. A further system for regulating a flow of information to a user is provided, the system including a user profiles database including a relevancy threshold for the user, a relevancy engine to generate relevancy scores for a plurality of incoming messages, the relevancy scores indicating relevancies of the incoming messages to the user, and a salience engine to deliver to the user message information derived from at least some of the incoming messages having relevancy scores satisfying the relevancy threshold at a rate specified by the user.
Other aspects of the invention include the various combinations of one or more of the foregoing aspects of the invention, as well as the combinations of one or more of the various embodiments thereof as found in the following detailed description or as may be derived therefrom. The foregoing aspects of the invention also have corresponding computer-implemented processes which are also aspects of the present invention. Other embodiments of the present invention may be derived by those of ordinary skill in the art both from the following detailed description of a particular embodiment of the invention and from the description and particular embodiment of a system in accordance with the invention.